The conjugal mixity: an experience of migration. A comparative study of the effects of the stigmatization on natives and their Arab partners in Alsace (France) and Venetia (Italy)
Author: Odasso, Laura , laura.odasso@misha.fr
Department: Cultures and Society in Europe (Sociology & Migrations Studies)
University: University of Strasbourg and Ca' Foscari University of Venice, France
Supervisor: Catherine Delcroix & Emanuela Trevisan Semi
Year of completion: 2013
Language of dissertation: French
Keywords:
Mixity/Mixité
, Racisms
, Migration
, Collective action
Areas of Research:
Migration
, Law
, Racism, Nationalism and Ethnic Relations
Abstract
This comparative PhD thesis aims to investigate the influence – in Veneto and in Alsace – of racism and islamophobia on the life course of couples whose one partner is Arab. Based on life histories and participant observations, the analysis focuses on the effects of laws and decrees on nationality and citizenship, of national belonging, and of religious affiliation. These contextual elements help to understand the individual and collective actions in reaction to the stigmatization of mixité. The analytic originality consists in studying marriage dynamics by considering the physical migration of the Arab partner but also the « intimate » or « of contact » migration of the other. Laws and decrees, political and media discourses and stigmatizing representations do affect the lives of these couples. But instead of weakening them, the research shows how quite often they may strengthen the actors and led them to emerge as agents of change for themselves, their families, and their society.
